“I told you, remember? I don’t do that for just anyone. If I’d given that grimoire to Hester, I’d never see her again.”
“I get it. I feel bad saying this after I’ve gotten to know her, but she’s not very trustworthy at all, is she?”
“You say that because you know her so well, not in spite of it. But enough about Hester. Are you interested in buying that?”
“How much is it?”
“I’d say it’s worth two platinum coins.”
I was so stunned by that quote that I burst out laughing.
I know how rich this must sound, coming from a guy who tosses a bunch of gold coins into the church’s purse for a bunch of ability assessments, but that was just ridiculously expensive.
One platinum coin was worth ten gold. I’d have to work for two months straight without a single day’s rest to earn that kind of money.
The worst part was that two platinum coins was the price it fetched used, selling on the backstreet markets. I honestly couldn’t even begin to imagine how much a brand-new grimoire would cost.
“Yeah, there’s no way I can afford that. I figured it’d be expensive, but not that expensive,” I said.
“I understand. I spent a whole day myself mulling over whether or not it was a worthwhile investment, and sure enough, it’s been sitting on the shelf this whole time. It’s not exactly what backstreet shoppers are looking for, I suppose.”
“Well, maybe I’ll come back to buy it one day. So, I’ll take it off your hands then,” I said.
“Oh? Are you interested? It’s worth too much not to charge a deposit...but I trust you. I’d be happy to let you pay for the rest later, just like with the botany book.”
“You mean that?!” I exclaimed. Then, after collecting myself, I said, “Wait... But...”
The prospect of being able to pay later for something worth two platinum coins was so tempting, I almost bit. But at the end of the day, it was still worth two platinums.
A deferred payment was technically just a debt, and the grimoire’s only use to me was helping Hester learn magic. A mage who couldn’t use magic was basically useless, but on the other hand, all she had to do was learn magic to become useful.
I’d agreed to form a party with her and Ralph once they were able to comfortably slay goblins, so it would be a huge plus to me in the long run if Hester could start studying magic right away. The sooner she could hold her own, the better.
Still... I wasn’t about to put myself in debt for her.
I’d promised myself that I wouldn’t let myself get taken advantage of, so I couldn’t just take on a massive debt like that when there was the very real possibility that she’d make a run for it the moment she didn’t need my help anymore.
“I really appreciate the offer, but at that kind of price, I think I’ll have to pass on it for now,” I said.
“Well, that’s a shame. Let me know if you ever change your mind, and I’ll be happy to sell it to you.”
“Right. Thanks.”
With that, I left the Seven Fortunes.
I’d assumed I’d be able to do something about Hester’s problem first, but maybe solving Ralph’s would end up being faster.
Now that I’d agreed to form a party with them, the first order of business was getting Ralph to the Healers’ Guild. So, with that plan in mind, I headed back to the Shangri La Hotel.
Once I got to my room, I split the thirty dried plant samples in half and ate fifteen of them. After that, I was ready to go to the church for another ability assessment. It had been a month since my last one.
The dried plants were even grosser than I’d remembered, and their unpleasant taste stuck with me as I walked over to the church.
I had a feeling I’d need to rethink my strategy. I wasn’t going to be able to keep eating all those nasty plants if I didn’t find some way to cover up the taste.
Drying them out prolonged their shelf life, but it seemed to amplify their bitterness. It just wasn’t feasible to eat them raw.
In any case, the only thing that mattered was that I ingested them somehow, and I figured it might be easier to crush them up or cover them in something.
I’d have to do a little more research into how to prepare them. But first, I had to do my ability assessment at the church.
I had a feeling that I’d probably increased my base stats after a month of hunting monsters, but it was the stat buffs from the plants I’d eaten today that I was really interested in.
My HP and vitality had each increased by one point after returning from my last venture into Patia Forest, so if the same thing happened this time, then I could conclude that the other half of the plant samples I’d brought back were useless.
On the other hand, if I didn’t get those buffs this time, then that meant the HP and vitality buff effects had come from the other half of the plants. The most tedious possibility, though, was that only one of those stats increased.
There was nothing I could do about that except leave it to fate, though. As I prayed for a straightforward all-or-nothing result today, I opened the church door and stepped inside.
It seemed like there was a service today, because the church was full of people, just like it had been when I’d first visited. I threaded my way through the crowd and headed toward the assessment room.